Spring brings on that sweet maple season

David Lassman / The Post-StandardTim Walberger, of Paradise Farms in Manlius, draws off some syrup from an evaporator as he boils sap to produce maple syrup.The farm is in its second year of production and its medium amber won a Best in Class blue ribbon at the New York State Fair.

Central New York -- This week’s warmth by day and chill at night means more and more sugarbushes will be up and running for maple syrup season.

Saturday and Sunday represents the first of two Maple Weekends in New York state. Maple producers throughout the state, including Central New York, will be open to show visitors how sap that drips out of maple trees is turned into the sweet, savory syrup of spring.

Maple Weekends continue March 26 and 27. Farms are open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both weekends.

Paradise Farms in Manlius is in only its second year making syrup and does it the old-fashioned way, collecting sap in buckets. Owners Julia and Tim Walberger entered one bottle of their medium amber at the New York State Fair just to see if it was good enough to be judged in competition.

That one bottle won the blue ribbon for Best in Class. So Julia Walberger said husband Tim now is a bit superstitious.

“He wants to do everything exactly the same as last year,” she laughed.

So far this year, they have made 35 gallons of light amber.

“It’s going real well. We’re getting quite a bit of sap,” she said.

David Rudd, who has a 74-milker dairy farm in Boylston, said it’s a bit cooler in his neck of the woods so he didn’t even begin tapping until this week. He taps 1,400 trees with two buckets each.

“My grandfather started the sugarbush back in 1940,” Rudd said. “It’s always our first crop of the year — it’s kinda in our blood.”

Maple syrup producers in New York state are coming off a very poor year in 2010. The temperatures at the end of March warmed too quickly, shutting off taps way too soon.

Maple producers need daytime temperatures of about 45 to 50 degrees and nights of about 25 to 30 for a good sap run. The pressure put on the tree when the temperatures rise pushes the sap out of the taps that have been drilled into the tree.

As a result, New York’s maple syrup production decreased 29 percent from 2009. And that was with 1.9 million taps, 4 percent more than in 2009. Producers made about 312,000 gallons last year, compared to 439,000 gallons in 2009.

Rudd said he usually makes 300 to 400 gallons a year. He produced 70 gallons last year.

Sugar content across the state also was low last year. While it takes about 40 to 45 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup on average, some producers reported needing up to 70 gallons of sap for one gallon of syrup, because the sugar content was so low.

This lack of syrup resulted in a slight increase in prices for consumers. Helen Thomas, executive director of the New York Maple Producers Association, said the price for a gallon at the maple exhibit at the state fair was up a dollar from the previous year — from $55 to $56 a gallon.

Thomas said prices may have been higher in the Central New York region, which saw the worst crop in the state. Many producers in Central New York produced 20 percent of a normal crop, she said.

Kim Enders, who with husband Kevin owns Red Schoolhouse Maple in Palermo, said once it warmed up this season, the sap began running well.

“We’ve made 200 gallons of mostly dark amber,” she said Wednesday. ’’This is our second year of production. We started in 2009 with just 12 buckets behind the house. We got bitten by the bug.”

Now, they tap nearly 2,000 trees.

Maple Weekend locations

Maple producers will host Maple Weekend events March 19 and 20 an March 26 and 27.
To find a location of participating producers, go to this website and then click on the Location link on the left side of the page.
Scroll down, find your county and then look for sites to visit.
Most will be selling syrup and other maple products and some have pancake breakfasts. Be sure to check the dates they are open, because not all of them are open both weekends.